Sunday, March 9, 2014

I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com
to create a series of images combining my video game artwork with
photos of models taken by Cherie Roberts, and here's one of them!

This image is the last in the series and the second to feature model Katie Pfeffer. The main thing I had fun with here was the interaction between Katie and the characters. I think more so on this image than the others I was really thinking about unique ways to make that interaction happen, and making it look like a little more was going on than just drawings being added to a photo. Cherie and Katie did an awesome job matching the pose I drew. The characters included are Q*Bert, the hotdog and egg from Burger Time, a crab from Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, and a bug from Galaga.

Here are some progress images:

Something I enjoyed about these progress shots was noticing how much of a difference there was before and after I polished up the arcade cabinet with lighting and shading. I'm pretty happy with the hybrid realistic/illustrated look it has. Rather than single out a specific game I decided to make an "I Heart Girls" cabinet and incorporate some of my favorite design elements from other arcade machines.

Here's the drawing of the girl I did for the side of the machine:

And if you look closely, I added in a nod to local arcade Billy Bob's
Wonderland by including one of their tokens. It's been in my area since I was a kid, and is now one of last
places in the country where you can see the animatronic Rock-afire
Explosion band:

Friday, March 7, 2014

I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com
to create a series of images combining my video game artwork with
photos of models taken by Cherie Roberts, and here's one of them!

This was another pose that Cherie came up with, along with beautiful model Gabby Jeanne. I chose to theme this one around Metroid games and include the series heroine, Samus.

The challenge with this piece was having a real girl and illustrated girl side-by-side. The reason why this was tricky is because I wasn't going for contrast as much as with the other pieces, and attractive cartoon girls are known for having exaggerated curves and features. Having these exaggerations next to a real person would only make them look more-so, and probably end up looking wonky. I was really curious as to how this would go and if I could make it work.

In the end I am very happy with how it turned out, and I think both girls successfully look like they are occupying the same space. I also like how natural the scene looks given that it wasn't a pose I had planned out beforehand.

While working on this series I tried to think of lots of unique ways for the characters to interact with the models, so I'm also pleased with how Gabby wearing Samus' helmet turned out.

Here as some progress images, including embarrassingly bad first sketch:

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com
to create a series of images combining my video game artwork with
photos of models taken by Cherie Roberts, and here's one of them!

Today's image features the lovely Katie Pfeffer. The intention for each image was for me to come up with the poses and scenes beforehand so that Cherie could match them in her photos, but this was a pose that Cherie and Katie came up with just as an extra. Cherie sent it to me in case I wanted to use it, and I loved it.

I like including elements in my drawings that you can only get away with in illustration, like using the impossible size of a charterer like Zangief to create contrast with other figures. I was curious to see what that would be like when an actual person was involved, which is what lead to this idea. (That and my love of Zangief.)

Katie's shirt was blank in the photo, so of course I had to add something to it. And I finished it off by giving her the Chun-Li hair bun...things. I'm sure they have an official name.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com to create a series of images combining my video game artwork with photos of models taken by Cherie Roberts, and here's one of them!

When Cherie brought up the possibility of working with the 2012 Playmate of Year on this project it took me about two seconds to say yes. The result is a gorgeous photo of a gorgeous lady, Jaclyn Swedberg. I'll leave you to do your own research on her Playboy shoots.

When I first came up with this pose I had a different idea in mind that involved characters gathering around to watch the screen of the model's Game Boy. But after I saw the photo I had a better idea, which came from thinking about the contour of the model's body mimicking the terrain of a video game level. Mario games have the most recognizable side-scrolling levels, so going with that seemed to make the most sense. I allowed myself to use all Mario characters in this image with the caveat that I wouldn't use them at all in the other pieces of the series, just to make sure I came up with different ideas.

Monday, March 3, 2014

I'm extremely excited that I can start showing off this very cool project I've been working on! I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com on an a series of images that combine girls and video games...okay, nothing new if you've checked out my work before, except this time the girls are real live models!

This is probably one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on. Cherie Roberts, who runs I Heart Girls, approached me about being the latest in her series of artist collaborations. Our artistic paths had indirectly crossed before, as she photographed models wearing my shirt designs for the 2010 IGN gamer girl gift guide.

The project basically involved Cherie photographing models so that I could draw in different video game elements and characters around them. From the beginning, Cherie wanted the theme of the work to be all about my interests and was extremely accommodating. One of the coolest parts of the whole process was that I was able to come up with the idea of each scene beforehand. This means that I did a thumbnail sketch and Cherie photographed the model in that pose. It was so cool to just jot something down and have it result in a professionally shot photo of a gorgeous model.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Tonight marks the opening of It Came From 1984 at Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, New York.The show is curated by artist Chogrin and features work inspired by films that were released in 1984. Turns out the year I was born was a great one for iconic films!

Above is my piece based on the wedding scene at the end of The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Stay tuned to the gallery's website to view and buy artwork when it becomes available!

Friday, January 24, 2014

I recently got in my copy of Front 190, of which I illustrated the cover and also did some artwork for an article inside.

Not the easiest thing to photograph, but I worked with the folks at Front to set up the file so that it could be printed with metallic gold ink in certain areas.

My artwork inside the magazine is for a piece called Fads of the Future. They wanted the art to be in that sort of happy 1950s cartoon style to contrast with the darker humor of the piece. Working in retro styles is something I love, so doing these went very smoothy. As usual they provided me with all the copy and specifics of how they wanted the illustrations to look, and I took it from there.

What's funny is that as I was working on this I was thinking about how cool it would be to illustrate one of their covers, and lo and behold an email asking me to do just that hit my inbox!

Once the cover shoot with the model was done and they provided me the photo they wanted to use, I started doing some very rough sketches of the carousel unicorn they wanted her to ride, and we then went back and forth and adjusted from there.

Friday, January 17, 2014

I was asked by Game Paused to contribute some work to a book celebrating the less-famous Mario brother, Luigi. Of course I jumped at the chance, because as I have mentioned before I am a huge fan of Luigi and secondary characters in general. In fact I have discussed this piece before, because this is a new version of a drawing I did for my solo show last summer.

The book was printed in only green and blue, (which I like,) so I reworked the artwork accordingly. The name of the book is Game Icons: Luigi, and you can order it here from the Game Paused website. Hopefully I can update and add some more photos when my copy arrives.

Friday, January 10, 2014

The Fiary Tales art show opens tonight at Gallery 1988 West, and here's my piece for it. I wanted to do something simple, so I decided to draw my version of a modern take on Snow White. There have been lots of great reimaginings of the Disney princesses lately, so I know I'm not treading new ground here, but it seemed like a fun piece to do.

I also read the original Grimm fairy tale before doing this, and it's not as different from the movie as I would have thought, but the ending is extremely abrupt and out of nowhere. That may have been a theme with their tales, I'm not sure. I believe all the Grimm fairy tales are public domain and free to look up and read online, if curiosity strikes you.